Hello. Jeff - This report is amazing. IF a form of
mad cow disease can kill off almost 65% of Afghanistan's livestock, we
might have an extremely virulent strain or a new mad cow disease.

Perhaps, if it is found that mad cow disease, the pathogen
being infectious prions, has caused this outbreak, there might be contributing
factors, like depleated uranium, that alters the animal proteins more rapidly.

At this time, given the brevity of information provided,
I tend to think that we have a language translation problem. The disease
named here "Mad Cow Disease" may not be the actual illness infecting
the livestock. They may even be using the terms Mad Cow Disease and mean
Foot and Mouth Disease.

When more information becomes available, I will update
you immediately.

Patricia Doyle

From ProMED-mail

Animal Epidemic Spreads To Badakhshan

The Pak Tribune
3-20-5

Nearly 65 percent of the animal livestock in northeastern
Badakshan province have died after contracting a form of mad-cow disease
from cattle exported from Pakistan, said the head of the agriculture and
livestock department, Eng. Mohammad Hassan. The disease has affected mainly
animals in the districts of Shahr-e-Bozurg, Khiwa, Arghanshas and Wardaj.

"This disease, which was 1st discovered in Badakhshan
2 years ago, has been transmitted from commercial animals from Pakistan
and other provinces. We have many problems with agriculture and farming,
and there is only one veterinary surgeon in Faizabad city with nobody in
the districts," he said. He warned that, if the disease was not controlled,
it could spread throughout Faizabad.

A resident of Shahr-e-Bozurg talked to Pajhwok at the
agriculture department. "I have 800 sheep, out of which, 750 are healthy
so far, but 50 have died due to the epidemic," he said. He said there
is no veterinary surgeon in his region to treat the animals.

http://paktribune.com/news/index.php?id=98345

ProMED-mail promed@promedmail.org

Badakhshan province is one of the 34 provinces of Afghanistan,
situated in the northeast, bordering Pakistan on the southeast and Tajikistan
on the north and northeast.

The said newswire is rather ambiguous, describing a "form
of mad-cow disease," allegedly introduced by cattle from Pakistan
2 years ago, which has been causing mortality of (not less than!) 65 percent
in "animal livestock" (cattle and sheep?) in 4 districts of Badakhashan.
One may assume that (one or more) disease entities, infectious or otherwise,
might prevail in the region, causing (significant?) mortality. Probably,
some of the cases are manifested by nervous symptoms.

In contrast, the reported lack of veterinary support
in the area seems to be unambiguous (room for welcome intervention of VSF
(Veterinaires sans frontiers)?!). Veterinary investigations are required,
initially to rule out highly infectious diseases (such as FMD and rinderpest)
as well as zoonoses. Their results will be appreciated. - Mod.AS